In the trenching industry, earth may be degraded using picks or teeth to break up minerals and rocks. Picks are generally attached to trenching booms or wheels and are used for making trenches in the earth for installing pipes or utility lines and digging foundations for buildings.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,035,024 to Fink, which is herein incorporated by reference for all that is contains discloses a hard rock trench cutting machine including a main body assembly, a cutter wheel assembly, and a longitudinal thrust assembly. The main body assembly includes two longitudinally extending cantilever support booms each having a forward portion and a rearward portion. The rearward portions of the support booms are connected to four side wall support feet which move laterally relative to the support booms between a retracted position and an extended position. The cutter wheel assembly includes a cutter wheel frame slidably disposed on the forward portion of the support booms. A cutter wheel drum carrying a plurality of roller cutters is rotatably carried by the cutter wheel frame for rotation about an axis. The longitudinal thrust assembly extends between the main body assembly and the cutter wheel assembly for pushing the roller cutters against the trench end face.
Examples of the trenching machines of the prior art are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,961,185 to Friant, U.S. Pat. No. 5,295,735 to Cobbs, U.S. Pat. No. 7,150,131 to Barker, U.S. Pat. No. 6,854,201 to Hunter et al, U.S. Pat. No. 6,457,267 to Porter et al, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,341,823 to Sollami. These applications are herein incorporated by reference for all that they contain.